Grimes Campaign: "Empty Dress" Comments a "Misogynistic Attack"

Democratic Senatorial candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is taking aim at a Republican strategist’s claims that she is “an empty dress.”

National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director Brad Dayspring also said Grimes is “incapable of articulating her own thoughts.” Members of Grimes’s camp joined liberal organizations in denouncing the comments as sexist.

Politico reports the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued a fundraising solicitation Wednesday on the heels of the comments, telling supporters to counter what the group called “misogynistic attacks.”

Republican party officials, meanwhile, brushed off the accusations and pointed to the ongoing sexual harassment investigation surrounding Democratic state representative John Arnold of Union County.

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Republican dreams of a U.S. Senate takeover have been shattered in recent elections by a collection of "unelectable" nominees — the term of art used by political pros to refer to not-ready-for-prime-time candidates whose extreme views doomed their chances with mainstream voters.

There was Delaware's Christine "I'm Not A Witch" O'Donnell, and Nevada's Sharron "Some Latinos Look More Asian To Me" Angle in 2010.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager says in a telephone conversation taped earlier this year that he is “holding my nose” while doing the job, a less-than-flattering remark about a powerful GOP establishment figure struggling to shore up tea party support at home in Kentucky.

Benton said during the phone call that he thought helping McConnell's 2014 re-election effort would be "a big benefit" to Senator Rand Paul in 2016.

Paul, a Bowling Green Republican, is often mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate.

In a brief telephone interview Thursday, Jesse Benton didn’t dispute the authenticity of the taping, saying he wasn’t confirming it was him, but wasn’t denying it either.

Separately, in a statement emailed to reporters, he said he believes in McConnell and is 100 percent committed to his re-election.

An audio of the Jan. 9 conversation was posted online by Economic Policy Journal. It said the call was placed to Benton by Dennis Fusaro, a one-time aide in former Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign.

McConnell touted his Senate leadership and ignored Grimes, aiming his criticism at President Barack Obama. Both candidates in next year's Senate race spoke at the Fancy Farm picnic on Saturday in western Kentucky.

McConnell told a raucous crowd that Obama's health-care law is a "disaster", and said he will focus his campaign on the damage the President's policies are having in the Bluegrass State.